Hundreds of skeletons have been unearthed at a medieval mental health hospital in London. The site will be cleared for a new tunnel project.

Human remains that could be 7,000 years old were unearthed in Iowa during sewer construction, along with “apparent signs of a Stone Age clambake,” and flooring from ancient homes. “On a national level, we are still struggling to understand the first people of the Americas. Any information like this is hugely beneficial to filling in the gaps,” said Ben Thomas of the Archaeological Institute of America. 

Sewer work in Hastings, England, led to the discovery of a smugglers’ tunnel dating to the eighteenth century.

A well-preserved human brain has been recovered from a skull found in a waterlogged pit in Yorkshire. The man had been hanged and decapitated more than 2,000 years ago. 

An examination of Spanish and Portuguese skulls spanning 300 years revealed that while the crania of both men and women got bigger over time, women’s crania grew more. Ann Ross of North Carolina State University thinks that changes in nutrition, living conditions, and genetic influences could account for the differences. 

Daniel Grant writes about the antiquities trade for the Huffington Post. 

“The Amarna Princess,” a fake ancient Egyptian statue, was sold to a museum in 2003. 

A 29-year-old North Carolina man has been sentenced to probation, restitution, and community service for damaging a petroglyph while on a fishing trip on the Colorado River. “This defendant thoughtlessly defaced a work of art that is over 1,000 years old and holds immense cultural significance,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke. 

Art historian Silvano Vinceti wants to find the remains of Lisa Gherardini, who died in 1542, and try to determine if she was Leonardo da Vinci’s model for the Mona Lisa.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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